- Hi, I'm Inga Witscher, host of Around the Farm Table .
Here's a story from some of the fascinating folks
we've met on the show.
- The machine to me, it's improbable.
If you had told me how it works,
I'd say, "Nah, that wouldn't work,"
but it actually works very well.
[engine rumbling]
[surf rock music]
[air whooshing]
[air whistling] [pumpkin thumping]
- Here on our farm, we grow pumpkins
to produce pumpkin seed oil.
- Ken: We produced the first pumpkin seed oil
ever made in the United States.
All the work, all the planning that you've done,
everything is all geared to today.
- It's very exciting; it's harvest.
[surf rock music]
When we have harvest, we need a whole bunch of people to help.
And I think what's really interesting
is we never know what kind of crew we're gonna end up with.
So we're always meeting people, and that is really wonderful.
- Today, we harvested pumpkins with Ken and Jay.
It's very physical,
but I really enjoy helping out friends.
[whooshing]
- It's my 13th year helping Ken and Jay harvest pumpkins.
My role now, kind of is just like kicking their butts
and like, let's get going here and get this done.
- Harvesting pumpkins is actually a lot of fun.
We take turns grabbing the pumpkins off the ground.
We break them off the vine
and then we just toss them into the chopper box, basically.
[surf rock music]
- Ken: It smashes up the pumpkins,
and then it goes into a series of three tubes.
And in the very first tube,
it actually will spit out out the back end
the rind, the flesh of the pumpkin,
so it's a net gain of organic matter to the field.
[surf rock music]
And the seeds move on into the other tubes
where they're cleaned.
And we end up with remarkably clean seeds at the end.
- Helping out other farmers like this,
it means a lot to me.
- It's nice to feel like I've helped a local farmer
create a product.
- Ken: It's very nice to be with community in doing this.
And we would love for Prairie Farm and this area,
northwest Wisconsin, to become known
as where America's pumpkin seed oil comes from.
- We're really having fun, and I think we now have a model.
The harvest is a delight; it's just a delight.
- Inga: For more stories like this,
visit pbswisconsin.org.
[air whooshing]